Total Brain Freeze: Bishop Bikes x Maglia Rosa x Velócolour

The 7-11 chain, some 56,000 stores-strong, is an institution with a storied past, sponsorship of legendary classic road racing teams included. Chris of Bishop Bikes has teamed up with Velócolour on a special tribute frame for Manuel at Maglia Rosa NYC.

Customers of New York’s Maglia Rosa, located at 2 Fourth Place Brooklyn, may have already seen this magnifico machine cruising the borough, although it’s so fresh, you could probably still smell the paint, masterfully laid down by Toronto’s Velócolour.

The design was conceived by Suzanne at Velócolour, who said this about its creation: “When Chris first got in touch with us about this project we were, of course, excited for the opportunity to revisit the classic and iconic Eddy Merckx 7-11 team paint scheme.

“We wanted the paint to be instantly recognizable as a 7-11 reference so the three main colors and triangular transitions had to stay fairly close to the original version. The white stripes were accentuated to give some fine detail and create a horizon line turning the bold white and green triangles into an abstracted mountain landscape.

“We knew this was being put together for our good friend Manuel of the Maglia Rosa Shop in Brooklyn. An Italian and fan of Andy Hampsten, the famed Giro D’Italia tour winner, we needed to bring that into the scheme as well, so a dash of pink was added to the tri-colour scheme with a simple pink stripe.

Suzanne continues: “We found out after putting the scheme together that is it a nice compliment to the Maglia Rosa store kit. All contributors’ marks were drawn in a similar style and stacked vertically on the seat tube to give equal weight and presence to us all.

Chris’ thinned lugs are a technique that has been utilized by numerous builders over the years, although he has perfected it. For this frame, he used Llewellyn lugs, designed by Australia’s Darrell McCulloch, with a modified 28.6×28.6 Long Shen seat tube lug.

This meant he didn’t have to use the 30.6 seat post required by Darrell’s lug and most uber-oversized lug sets. Instead, he used a custom blend of tubes: a tapered Columbus HSS top tube, as well as a tapered Reynolds 853 seat tube.

As a result, he could install a standard 27.2 seat post which has better shock absorption and places the larger diameter of the tube at the bottom bracket, providing extra stiffness and support for the back of the head tube.

Chris used a 35mm Columbus PegoRichie down tube, with narrowly-tapered Columbus Zona chain stays. A true mixed bag: the seat stays are Dedacciai Zero. The fork is the new Richard Sachs PegoRichie piece.

It uses a larger diameter, lightweight steerer with thin-walled blades proprietary to the fork crown, and is as light as a 1″ fork. The front dropouts are stainless, while the rear drop outs are refined Paragon Machine Works units with a replaceable hanger.

Techincal gubbins aside, this has to be the best interpretation of the illustrious 7-11 team bikes ever seen and is an acclamation of both Chris Bishop’s and Velócolour’s skills. Manuel should be a very proud papa.